


One Year of Change

by Merfilly



Category: The Crow (1994)
Genre: 100 Days of Color, Character Study, Character of Color, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-14 04:31:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/145396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at events through Albrecht's eyes</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Year of Change

At least he wasn't out on the streets. From the minute he had responded to the call concerning the rape and homicide, he'd been off the beat for the rest of Devil's Night and all of Halloween, because of staying with her. He'd been hoping for her to come up long enough to give him some clue, something to go on so she and her fiance would have that measure of justice.

Not that it mattered, in the end, because Shelly hadn't been able to pull through. Shelly had fought longer than most he could have named or thought of, but there had just been too much trauma.

Maybe it was for the better, remembering her words for Eric.

He moved slowly, past the nurses, past the doctors, and stood outside, just past the entrance of the emergency room to light a cigarette. He inhaled, watching the cherry burn bright, seeing other shades of red in his mind's eye, before exhaling that first drag.

Shelly and Eric, the doomed lovers, and by morning there wouldn't be anyone to remember them except him and a little girl. It was just the way their world worked.

`~`~`~`~`

He never meant to let a case get that deep in his veins. Of course, he had told himself that the last time, when he lost his shield.

This time was worse though. Things had been tough with his wife since he got busted and now he knew there was no fixing it.

She wanted a divorce, wanted to break up their home, move back to her family on the other side of town. He really couldn't blame her. This part of the Motor City was hell on earth, and he wasn't trying to deny it.

He just couldn't bring himself to abandon it like every other sane person with the ability to get out.

He lit another cigarette, staring at the last picture they'd taken together, and consoled himself that maybe she'd be safe now.

`~`~`~`~`

Sarah needed him. He knew this, felt it deep in his bones before he even met Darla. They made the odd pair in their neighborhood, meeting up for hot dogs and sodas every now and then. She always wrinkled her nose at his cigarettes, and he always gave her hell over the skateboard, but they had a rapport that had gone beyond the case that had brought them together.

There were days, though, that he really wished he had some way of making her safer than she was.

`~`~`~`~`

Maybe, if he had been like every other cop in the city, he could have blown off the resemblance. Maybe he could have put it off to the vigilantism that popped up every now and then. Except, just like he'd predicted, no one really remembered Shelly or her rock-star-wannabe boyfriend, Eric.

He went, pulled the files, and that was Eric. Eric in bad clown make-up, wandering the streets a year to the day after his brutal murder, not so far from violence that all tied back to that night.

A shiver walked over his back as he thought of the next twenty-four hours, of old tales from his childhood, and knew that he was tied into it deeper than he'd ever want to admit.

`~`~`~`~`

Eric being in his living room, the comment about the hat, bringing up his wife... it all brought it home that this was really happening. He had to look at this man that had been sprawled on the pavement, had to remember the broken, bleeding woman that had never seen justice, and more, he had to believe.

He found he wanted to believe, wanted Eric's return to mean something on the big scale for their neighborhood, even if it cut across every piece of his training, every bit of his belief that the system should work.

He just knew too well that it didn't, and that made his need for Eric to succeed drive him to help, no matter the cost.

`~`~`~`~`

He passed out somewhere on the ride to the hospital, stayed out through prep for surgery, and finally woke to find not only Sarah with him, but her mother. The woman struggled to meet his eyes, had to force herself to speak, but the way she told him she hadn't wanted Sarah to come all the way by herself made him pay attention.

Maybe with Top Dollar gone, things on the beat would improve.

No matter what, though, he knew life had gotten better, as a daughter rolled her eyes at a mother's protectiveness.

Maybe he ought to call his wife, before those papers were finalized, and see if she'd come home after all.

Then again, maybe he was just riding the high, the one that came with knowing justice had come at last, at least this once, for a broken woman and the man who had loved her.


End file.
